Have You Ever Wondered How Do Hackers Earn Money?

The secretive business of “Cybercrime” is lurking all around the web. Seriously, there are like thousands of ways by which hackers can easily evade our privacy and penetrate into our security system. But the question arises, what do they get out of it? Who is paying them to perform these illegal/immoral conduct of activities? Is hacking their part time occupation or are they working for big shots? The inquisition can go on for hours before we reach up to a conclusion.

Well, surely it’s a known fact that hacking makes money, and a whole lot of it. Security Researchers are scratching their heads day & night to figure out how hackers embed into our system, to have a precise idea about what’s going on.

How do Hackers get paid?

Hackers tend to be a little more savvy when it comes to getting paid. Most hackers prefer to keep their identity concealed. You’ll see them doing most mundane activities during the day and will rise like a dark knight warrior under the moonlight. Sounds familiar isn’t? Remember the movie “Matrix”, how Neo (Keanu Reeves) worked as a computer programmer during the day, yet still he had some astonishing hacking skills. On the other hand, there are full time hackers too who spend their entire life in a condo, leaving all the worldly pleasures aside. But mostly, they don’t do it for money. Anyone with impeccable hacking skills can make a good living legitimate without risking jail or criminal entanglement.

Hacking is more of an art than crime which traps naïve users in web. The most common scheme used by hackers is Bitcoin. It has opened a whole new avenue of generating funds while remaining anonymous.

What is a bitcoin? Is it the sole culprit?

For those who are not aware, bitcoin is a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate income or transfer funds. However, bitcoin’s most important characteristic, and the thing that makes it different from other conventional currencies, is that it is decentralized. No single institution controls the bitcoin network. This puts some people at ease, especially hackers as no one can trace or track down their criminal activities.

As bitcoins have their own set of rules, it doesn’t involve transactions dealing in hard cash. This currency isn’t physically printed in the shadows by a central bank, unaccountable to the population. As the whole operation is carried out through a mathematical algorithm, hackers create specialized programs which aims at emptying down your Bitcoin wallet.

Going Down the Rabbit Hole-Deeper & Darker

A smart hacker is the one who shuns the limelight and stays off the radar. There a variety of ways in which hackers perform the wheeling and dealing of funds. A lot of underground forums provide a platform where hackers hawk their goods like Trojans, bots and other malicious software. Another method is Exploit kits via which cybercriminals attack the mass. So if a buyer wants to use the exploit kit, they inject it into a website, but anywhere from 10-20% of that traffic goes back to the original seller, who then can do whatever they want with that victim. Finally, there is one traditional approach of hacking websites and selling large information of databases filled with juicy information.

In a nutshell, some hackers may enjoy a better lifestyle because of their skills and talent, while some organizations may hire international hackers and pay them officially as security consultants. There are different ways in which hackers exchange their funds, can be as simple as meeting in a ‘long dark alley’ to complex bitcoin transfers. Hacking is one dark world where anonymous transactions take place every single minute-leaving no trails behind.

If you went through any such experience, don’t hesitate to leave your feedback in the comments section below.

Author: Rimzhim SharmaRimzhim Sharma is a blogger at Systweak Software. An engineer by qualification, she discovered her penchant for writing all things tech and cool, quite by chance. She writes about newest technology trends and gadgets. When not writing, Rimzhim is likely to be found reading, traveling, or simply digging into her favorite foods.

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